Songwriters Quotes

I don't write songs, songs write me.

Sammy Cahn

Song, Writing, Writing Songs

10 Copy quote
You can't write a song out of thin air. You have to feel and know what you are writing about. ... Talent is only a starting point. You've got to keep working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there. ... Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it. ... The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. ... After you get what you want you don't want it. ... Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies. ... The song is ended, but as the songwriter wrote, the melody lingers on.

Irving Berlin

Song, Hate, Writing

9 Copy quote
I really enjoy playing solo acoustic. I think it's good for me as a songwriter to stay in touch with what it takes to make a song work by yourself.

Jeff Tweedy

Song, Thinking, Acoustics

"Wilco". Interview with Jason Crock, pitchfork.com. May 7, 2007.

9 Copy quote

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You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes, until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of clarity. Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the song, it's just complaining.

Joni Mitchell

Music, Song, Writing

"If You Seek a Moment of Clarity While Complaining, You Just Might Stop Complaining" by Dennis Merritt Jones, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 3, 2012.

85 Copy quote

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I write a lot from instinct. But as you're writing out of instinct, once you reach a certain level as a songwriter, the craft is always there talking to you in the back of your head...that tells you when it's time to go to the chorus, when it's time to rhyme. Real basic craft... it's second nature.

Janis Ian

Real, Writing, Talking

8 Copy quote
I never sit down to write. When I'm moved, I do it. I just wait for it to come. You just hear it. I can't really describe writing. It's in my head. I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs...A lot of people don't listen to the lyrics, really. A lot of people pretty much only listen to the chorus.

Lenny Kravitz

Song, Writing, Thinking

8 Copy quote
There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.

Barry Mann

Personality, Alcohol, Drug

"Q&A: Mann & Weil on surving as songwriters". Interview with Steve Sailer, www.upi.com. July 25, 2002.

16 Copy quote

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Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed.

John Lennon

Writing Songs, Demon, Songwriting

20 Copy quote
To be a musician, especially a singer-songwriter - well, you don't do that if you have a thriving social life. You do it because there's an element of alienation in your life.

James Taylor

Writing, Musician, Elements

15 Copy quote
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.

Barry Mann

Successful, Songwriting, Ability

"Q&A: Mann & Weil on surving as songwriters". Interview with Steve Sailer, www.upi.com. July 25, 2002.

7 Copy quote

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I got behind that pencil and nothing happened for many years, but since they put me in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, I've turned around. I took a good look at myself and said, I think it's time to get back at work.

Otis Blackwell

Thinking, Years, Looks

7 Copy quote
A songwriter writes songs all the time, whereas just writing a song can be done by anyone, anytime.

Bryan Adams

Music, Song, Writing

23 Copy quote
Bad facts make bad law, and people who write bad laws are in my opinion more dangerous than songwriters who celebrate sexuality.

Frank Zappa

Writing, Law, People

Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso (1990). “Real Frank Zappa Book”, p.276, Simon and Schuster

16 Copy quote

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As a songwriter, I try not to be sloppy; same with the music. You can be very lean, very efficient, so you're not wasting a lot of time getting' to the point. You're saying it with as pure a word or phrase as you can. That's the part that was craft. You refine and refine and refine. Maybe that's why the songs still hang on, because they're very pure. For one thing, they're very short. "Bad Moon Rising" is like 2 minutes and 12 seconds. I would try to do everything as quickly and with as little extra as possible. It was a challenge.

John Fogerty

Song, Writing, Moon

21 Copy quote
All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.

Steve Earle

Song, Voice, Crafts

26 Copy quote
As a songwriter, you might write every day and throughout the course of a year you might get four songs that are really special.

Dierks Bentley

Song, Writing, Years

6 Copy quote
Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing.

Mark Knopfler

Song, Law, Secret

33 Copy quote
I tended not to be concerned about whether a song was going to be a hit when I wrote it. Because it became evident that none of us knew what was a hit and what wasn't. So I thought if I just write what I like, why shouldn't people like what I like?

Hal David

Song, Writing, People

9 Copy quote
Music breeds its own inspiration. You can only do it by doing it. You may not feel like it, but you push yourself. It's a work process. Or just improvise. Something will come.

Burt Bacharach

Inspiration, Writing Songs, May

10 Copy quote
It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page.

Joan Baez

Music, Song, Memorable

"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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A lot of people pretty much only listen to the chorus.

Lenny Kravitz

People, Writing Songs, Songwriting

7 Copy quote
A lot of times songs are very much of a moment, that you just encapsulate. They come to you, you write them, you feel good that day, or bad that day.

Mick Jagger

Song, Writing, Feel Good

7 Copy quote
I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs.

Lenny Kravitz

Song, Writing, Thinking

6 Copy quote
Not to dismiss Gershwin, but Gershwin is the chip; Ellington was the block.

Joni Mitchell

Block, Chips, Songwriting

7 Copy quote
Some of the songs come so fully, it's like they are pre-packaged. There have been a couple that came in the middle of the night. And I thought, jeez, I'll never forget that. And went back to sleep, and it was gone. You'll hear something years later that another songwriter that you respect writes, and you go, jeez, I think that was the remnants of that song that got sent to me.

John Prine

Song, Couple, Sleep

29 Copy quote